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setterm writes to standard output a character string that will invoke the
specified terminal capabilities. Where possible terminfo is consulted
to find the string to use. Some options however (marked "virtual consoles
only" below) do not correspond to a terminfo(5) capability. In
this case, if the terminal type is "con" or "linux" the
string that invokes the specified capabilities on the PC Minix virtual console
driver is output. Options that are not implemented by the terminal are
ignored.

A 16-color can be an 8-color, or grey, or bright
followed by red, green, yellow, blue,
magenta, cyan, or white.

The various color options may be set independently, at least on virtual
consoles, though the results of setting multiple modes (for example,
--underline and --half-bright) are hardware-dependent.

--appcursorkeys [on|off] (virtual
consoles only)

Sets Cursor Key Application Mode on or off. When on, ESC O
A, ESC O B, etc. will be sent for the cursor keys instead of ESC [ A, ESC
[ B, etc. See the vi and Cursor-Keys section of the
Text-Terminal-HOWTO for how this can cause problems for vi
users.

--append [console_number]

Like --dump, but appends to the snapshot file
instead of overwriting it. Only works if no --dump options are
given.

--background8-color|default

Sets the background text color.

--blank [0-60|force|poke]
(virtual consoles only)

Sets the interval of inactivity, in minutes, after which
the screen will be automatically blanked (using APM if available). Without
an argument, it gets the blank status (returns which vt was blanked, or
zero for an unblanked vt).

The force option keeps the screen blank even if a
key is pressed.

The poke option unblanks the screen.

--bfreq [number] (virtual consoles only)

Sets the bell frequency in Hertz. Without an argument, it
defaults to 0.

--blength [0-2000] (virtual consoles
only)

Sets the bell duration in milliseconds. Without an
argument, it defaults to 0.

--blink [on|off]

Turns blink mode on or off. Except on a virtual console,
--blink off turns off all attributes (bold, half-brightness, blink,
reverse).

--bold [on|off]

Turns bold (extra bright) mode on or off. Except on a
virtual console, --bold off turns off all attributes (bold,
half-brightness, blink, reverse).

--clear [all|rest]

Without an argument or with the argument all, the
entire screen is cleared and the cursor is set to the home position, just
like clear(1) does. With the argument rest, the screen is
cleared from the current cursor position to the end.

--clrtabs [tab1 tab2 tab3 ...] (virtual
consoles only)

Clears tab stops from the given horizontal cursor
positions, in the range 1-160. Without arguments, it clears all tab
stops.

--cursor [on|off]

Turns the terminal's cursor on or off.

--default

Sets the terminal's rendering options to the default
values.

--dump [console_number]

Writes a snapshot of the virtual console with the given
number to the file specified with the --file option, overwriting
its contents; the default is screen.dump. Without an argument, it
dumps the current virtual console. This overrides --append.

--filefilename

Sets the snapshot file name for any --dump or
--append options on the same command line. If this option is not
present, the default is screen.dump in the current directory. A
path name that exceeds the system maximum will be truncated, see PATH_MAX
from linux/limits.h for the value.

--foreground8-color|default

Sets the foreground text color.

--half-bright [on|off]

Turns dim (half-brightness) mode on or off. Except on a
virtual console, --half-bright off turns off all attributes (bold,
half-brightness, blink, reverse).

--hbcolor16-color

Sets the color for bold characters.

--initialize

Displays the terminal initialization string, which
typically sets the terminal's rendering options, and other attributes to
the default values.

--inversescreen [on|off]

Swaps foreground and background colors for the whole
screen.

--linewrap [on|off]

Makes the terminal continue on a new line when a line is
full.

--msg [on|off] (virtual consoles
only)

Enables or disables the sending of kernel printk()
messages to the console.

--msglevel0-8 (virtual consoles only)

Sets the console logging level for kernel printk()
messages. All messages strictly more important than this will be printed,
so a logging level of 0 has the same effect as --msg on and
a logging level of 8 will print all kernel messages.
klogd(8) may be a more convenient interface to the logging of
kernel messages.

--powerdown [0-60]

Sets the VESA powerdown interval in minutes. Without an
argument, it defaults to 0 (disable powerdown). If the console is
blanked or the monitor is in suspend mode, then the monitor will go into
vsync suspend mode or powerdown mode respectively after this period of
time has elapsed.

--powersaveoff

Turns off monitor VESA powersaving features.

--powersaveon|vsync

Puts the monitor into VESA vsync suspend mode.

--powersavepowerdown

Puts the monitor into VESA powerdown mode.

--powersavehsync

Puts the monitor into VESA hsync suspend mode.

--regtabs [1-160] (virtual consoles
only)

Clears all tab stops, then sets a regular tab stop pattern,
with one tab every specified number of positions. Without an argument, it
defaults to 8.

--repeat [on|off] (virtual consoles
only)

Turns keyboard repeat on or off.

--reset

Displays the terminal reset string, which typically resets
the terminal to its power-on state.

--resize

Reset terminal size by assessing maximum row and column.
This is useful when actual geometry and kernel terminal driver are not in
sync. Most notable use case is with serial consoles, that do not use
ioctl(3) but just byte streams and breaks.

--reverse [on|off]

Turns reverse video mode on or off. Except on a virtual
console, --reverse off turns off all attributes (bold,
half-brightness, blink, reverse).

--store (virtual consoles only)

Stores the terminal's current rendering options (foreground
and background colors) as the values to be used at reset-to-default.

--tabs [tab1 tab2 tab3 ...]

Sets tab stops at the given horizontal cursor positions, in
the range 1-160. Without arguments, it shows the current tab stop
settings.

Since version 2.25 setterm has support for long options with two hyphens,
for example --help, beside the historical long options with a single
hyphen, for example -help. In scripts it is better to use the
backward-compatible single hyphen rather than the double hyphen. Currently
there are no plans nor good reasons to discontinue single-hyphen
compatibility.